The Traderszone Network

SanDisk’s shares fell 5 percent in extended trading, after the company also reported lower-than-expected revenue for the third quarter. SanDisk, a supplier of memory chips for Apple Inc’s iPhones, in June bought Fusion-io Inc, a solid-state storage products maker. Rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said last week that it would spend $15 billion to build a major new factory in South Korea to make either memory chips or logic chips. SanDisk forecast revenue of $1.80 billion-$1.85 billion for the fourth quarter ending December.

Billionaire investor William Ackman turned up the heat on Allergan Inc. on Thursday when he accused the Botox maker’s board of misleading investors to fend off a hostile takeover bid from Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Ackman, whose hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management is Allergan’s biggest shareholder, told reporters that his lawyers had seen documents that show Allergan’s board knowingly released misleading statements about Valeant. They have lost about 6 percent in often volatile dealings since Valeant bid for Allergan in late April. Allergan’s shares edged up 0.7 percent.

Athena Capital Research LLC used $40 million to rig prices of thousands of stocks including EBay Inc. for at least six months in 2009, U.S. regulators said today when fining the high-speed trading firm $1 million.

Police clear one of three pro-democracy protest sites, as the two sides in the nearly three-week standoff remain steadfast in their demands.
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Having rotated their attention to the T-bill market in Japan (after demand for the Bank of Japan’s cheap loans disappointed policymakers) in an effort to ensure enough freshly printed money was flushed into Japanese markets, the BoJ now has a major problem. For the first time since QQE began, Bloomberg reports the BoJ failed to buy all the bonds they desired.

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Insider trading allegations forced Steve Cohen to shutter his namesake hedge fund and convert it into a family office. But the investing magnate is still minting money.

By Michael Flaherty and Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is considering turning its annual health check for big banks into one of the tools it could use to prevent a build up of excessive financial risks. If deployed, the modified tests could force banks to retain billions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to shareholders. While the move would help cool off sectors at risk of overheating, it could spark the ire of bank executives, who complain of rising regulatory burdens. Since 2009, the Fed has conducted the so called stress tests on the largest U.S. …